Indian pastor's mother beaten by Hindus

The mother of a Pentecostal pastor in Jaipur, India, was told by four Hindu radicals she must convert to Hinduism or be killed while she was beaten and seriously injured by the group in search of her son and his wife, according to a local news report.

"If you do not convert to Hinduism we will kill you and cut you in pieces," a group of ultra-nationalist Hindus told an elderly Christian as they attacked her at her son's home in Jaipur (Rajasthan), reported AsiaNews. The men were looking for the Rev. Vishaal Behl, a Pentecostal clergyman, and his wife.

The attack came last week when she was alone in her son's house, "which doubles as a prayer room for the Fire of God Ministries, the Pentecostal community he leads," AsiaNews reported.

The woman was injured seriously to the head and arms, according to the news story accompanied by a photo of the injured woman.

The four men came to the door with "faces disguised by helmets." According to the Christian news source, when the intruders found out that Behl and his wife were not at home they broke in and began destroying furnitures.

The group demanded that the woman tell them where her son and daughter-in-law were and began to beat her when she told them she did not know. The Hindu radicals left after neighbors became aware of the activity inside the home.

Sajan George, president of the Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC), said the beating is symptomatic of "the increasing intolerance and hostility towards Christians, the silence of the authorities and the absence of convictions" for the guilty.